Rep. Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora of Compostela Valley on Thursday called on telephone companies to explain why they charge subscribers even for dropped calls.
“That’s why I want to show them that this (charges on dropped calls) is happening. Every time my constituents call me up, I drop their calls so that I will be the one to call them up. But when I check my phone, the numbers are registered as received calls. This just means that subscribers were charged of P8 for the dropped call,” Zamora told ABS-CBN morning “Umagang Kay Ganda.”
Zamora, a member of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises, raised the issue following the hearing Wednesday conducted by the National Telecommunications Commission on the government petition for lower voice calls and short message service (SMS) for mobile phone subscribers.
During the hearing, NTC Commissioner Ruel Canobas discussed with telco representatives the proposal to cut access charges across networks. By bringing down charges to P0.15 from the current P0.35, the NTC said SMS rates, for example, could go down to P0.60 per send from P1 at present, the proposal said.
At least one telco representative, however, declined the proposal.
“Telecommunication companies have actually been reducing prices to their customers and we think that’s the right thing to do,” Ramon Isberto of Smart Communications said.
Globe Telecommunications and Sun Cellular, meanwhile, said they will consult with management first before issuing official statements.
“We’re still conducting internal discussion. We are now discussing the impacts of this in our business, and whether it will be beneficial to our subscribers,” lawyer Froilan Castelo of Globe said. He added that Globe received the invitation to the hearing only on Monday.
Lawyer Myla Matic of Sun, meanwhile, based her statement on ongoing industry promotions and packages.
“[The] industry has ongoing promotions and packages that we think, we have extensively offered to the public,” she said.
Zamora, meanwhile, said that the NTC and lawmakers are convinced that an earlier proposal to mobile phone companies to provide free SMS to subscribers is not viable. Instead, he said they will push on cutting the SMS rate down to P0.20.
The congressman’s proposal came amid a memorandum circular from NTC Deputy Commissioner Jaime Fortes to lower SMS charges to P0.20 as proposed by the commission after the public hearing Wednesday.
Meanwhile, aside from the position papers that the NTC required the telcos to submit by next week, officials of Smart, Sun and Globe were required to present data indicating their companies’ profit from the P1 SMS charge and their yearly net earnings.
This was after the phone companies claimed that they only get P0.93 from the P1 per SMS sent despite a P7 capital for the service.
Filed under: Uncategorized
